By TOM VARTANIAN
Staff Writer
One team was decked out in pink shirts. The other had the initials of a former teacher/friend on the back of their specially made shirts.
This was the scene at George W. Butts Field Wednesday night as Homer Central and visitor Cortland High met for their annual “Play For The Cure” field hockey game to raise money for the American Cancer Society. All proceeds will benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Combined, the two schools collected over $750 in fundraisers.
Julia Porter scored one goal and picked up two assists as the Purple Tigers, sporting the initials K A F on their backs in memory of long-time CHS teacher-coach Kathy Ferris who lost a battle to cancer this past year, posted a 3-0 OHSL Division II West victory over the pink-shirted Trojans.
After seven penalty corners and six shots, the Purple Tigers had nothing to show for their efforts. Homer goalkeeper LeeAnne Pedrick had two saves, defender Braeden Sharer cleared one ball from the goal line and Porter clanked a shot off the right post. The Trojans were playing good defense and shut down several other chances in the circle without a shot being taken by the visitors.
On the eighth shot, Porter finally gave Cortland a 1-0 lead with 4:22 left in the half.
“We had some really nice passing combinations,” Cortland coach Jamie Brown said. “We did some nice overlaps in the midfield. It had a lot of (offensive) barrages, but nothing to really show for it in the first half. We just needed to break the ice and things would flow better.
“LeeAnne, for not being in pads a lot, has really made tremendous strides in the past two to three weeks. She’s doing a nice job in there for Homer.”
Pedrick finished with six saves on the night for the Trojans.
“Our girls did step up tonight,” said Homer coach Ellen Garrett. “We have some starters out with illness and Colleen Gardner is out with a injury. We moved some people around and they did a good job. We worked as a team and the girls felt good about tonight, even though we lost. They now they played a better game than Monday and they know they are improving. I was happy with our effort.
“Sarah DiGiovanna was moved to centerback, Deanna Levitsky moved up to forward and we moved Steph Barlow to forward to try and get some more punch there. Ashley (Barnard) is doing a nice of distributing the ball from the midfield,” she added.
CHS GOT SOME breathing room 4:37 into second-half play when Haleigh Zeches flipped a shot into the back of the cage off a pass from Porter for a 2-0 advantage. Eight minutes later, Kristy Litzenberger tipped a blast by Porter inside the right post for the three-goal cushion. The final Cortland goal came off the 10th penalty corner of the night for the Purple Tigers. Their only tally of the night off a set restart from the end line.
The second half was much quieter overall with more play in the middle third of the field.
“It is frustrating,” Brown said about the lack of production from penalty corners. “I thought we executed well on our corners. We found a couple of options that were working and we got open shots. LeeAnne was making the saves. It’s just the way it goes. Some days you end up with four or five goals off corners and other days you may not get any.”
In the final two minutes, Homer got its best offensive surge of the game going in hopes of avoiding the shutout. The first penalty corner the Trojans yielded nothing. Forty second later, a second penalty corner generated two shot attempts out of the crowd, but Purple Tiger goalkeeper Maggie Brown stopped both attempts, One last penalty corner gave the Trojans one final shot that never reached Brown and the final second ticked off the clock.
“Maggie did come up big late in the game,” Coach Brown said of her daughter. “It is a tough situation to stand there most of the night and finally get tested late in the game. She held up to it well.”
One player will not find her name in the scoring column, but she is very active in getting the ball to the circle. Junior forward Sarah Hartnett does the things that gets her team in position to score, but rarely get the goal or assist for recognition.
“Sarah does so much to get our offense untracked,” Brown said. “It just doesn’t show in the scoring column as a goal or assists. She really is a key to our offense.”
Cortland will return to action Tuesday by hosting East Syracuse-Minoa at 4:30 p.m. Homer will host Cazenovia Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
CORTLAND JVs poured in four first-half goals and rolled to a 4-0 victory over Homer Wednesday. Lydia Polley scored the first goal six minutes into the game and it would really be all the 1-1-1 JV Tigers would need to victory.
Emily Saracene scored with 25:43 left in the half with Polley (15:18) and Taylor Thomas (7:36) closing out the half. Erin Brown assisted on the first two tallies.
Mikaylea Cerio made three saves for Cortland in the first half. Gabby Hollfelder stepped in front of the net during second half play and made four saves.
“It was , by far, our best game of the season,” Cortland coach Maureen White said. “We put it all together and we played as a team. I am happy with the result and this should be a confidence builder for the girls.”
White mentioned the defensive efforts of Morgan Larkin and Lyndsey Cunningham as crucial to her team’s success. Sarah Mehdi made seven saves in the goal for Homer.
Cortland JVs return to action Tuesday by hosting East Syracuse-Minoa. Homer will host Cazenovia Tuesday at 5 p.m.